


The Winner (Takes It All)

by mihrsuri



Category: Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 03:14:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11958519
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihrsuri/pseuds/mihrsuri
Summary: When Alex of Tirragen takes his ordeal it could have gone many ways, to many worlds. This is a glimpse of some of them. A remix of Into The Crucible by NightsMistress. (Title from The ABBA Song)





	The Winner (Takes It All)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [NightsMistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightsMistress/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Into the Crucible](https://archiveofourown.org/works/975912) by [NightsMistress](https://archiveofourown.org/users/NightsMistress/pseuds/NightsMistress). 



_ When Alex of Tirragen takes his ordeal it could have gone many ways, to many worlds. Perhaps as he dies, killed by his friends sword he might have seen them playing out before him or perhaps he simply saw them all while in the Chamber of the Ordeal. - no one will ever know., in the end. But these are some of the things he might perhaps have seen, some of the paths that could have been taken....  _

 

The body of Alexander of Tirragen is found in the morning when the chamber door opens. Strangely his face is set in a small smile as though he died with peace in his heart. His death shocks the palace - for all that the Chamber of the Ordeal can be fatal no one thought that this group of squires would have one who did not survive it. Especially not Alex of Tirragen of whom great things were expected, who had passed every test perfectly. 

 

(what the chamber gave him was the choice - to die without being bested or live knowing he would only be following behind and what he chose was to die unconquered) 

 

His knight master is seen to grieve. Much to his own surprise the knight master does in fact sincerely and deeply grieve. He will not forget this loss, this loss that Duke Roger lays at the Squire he knows as Alan's feet. He will have his revenge. 

 

-

 

Two days after his squire dies in the chamber of the ordeal Duke Roger of Conte confesses to treason. He is sentenced to be stripped entirely of his magic and confined to house arrest for the rest of his days - King Roald calls it a mercy. Many think it is too little punishment but for the Duke it is a worst torment than any sentence of death - to be left alone with his regrets at what he has done and what it has cost. He sits in luxury as his young squire rots in the ground, as the Queen slowly dies and knows it is all a result of his reckless ambitions. 

 

When Jon becomes King Roger does not expect to die. He knows Jon hates him too much for that. So he will live on in comfortable exile, held in contempt by the world and by himself most of all. 

 

-

 

Alex stands silent in the chamber and watches himself die at the hands of a dear friend. Watches himself lose and lose and lose in every single way - his cause is lost, his family name is tarnished by treason and his knight master dies - never to become king. He watches himself fade into the dust and become forgotten. Never the best - not even second best or third but nothing. A vague footnote in history and it burns him, to think that he will be reduced to such a place. He wants to argue, wants to scream that it isn't real, that it won't happen. But he is not allowed to scream, to speak in his own defence. 

 

_ It won't happen it won't happen _ he says to himself over and over again until the chamber door opens. He will be the best. He will be remembered and he will be the greatest knight in all of Tortall.

-

 

Squire Alex becomes Sir Alexander and Duke Roger becomes King Roger. Alex is named his champion and is acclaimed as the best swordsman in Tortall - the hero of the realm after having put down the conspiracy by external enemies that tragically killed Prince Jonathan and his parents - as well as several promising young squires (Alex does grieve for his friends but such is the necessity of greatness). Roger is married to the Lady Delia, now Queen but Alex knows he is foremost in the Kings heart - Alex is the only one Roger will be himself entirely with and Alexander of Tirragen holds that close to himself. 

 

He knows it means he is the best. 

 

-

 

Page Alan introduces Alex to George and Alex finds a kindred soul, finds that the feeling of being the best in this field of intrigue is what he is made for. It is why he too is suspicious of his Knight Master, why he goes to his friend Alan and then to Myles and to George. And why Alex slowly, begins to play a game of fooling one of the greatest sorcerers known. He does it, easily enough (not enough, not enough later and it will haunt him no matter what Jon says - Alex is the best and he should not have missed it in the service of those he loves) - it is not hard to fool Roger after all. 

 

Alex tells the truth. He wants to be the best at what he does. He just lets Roger fill in the implications with his own assumptions and the Duke is secure in his trust in him and does not ask further questions. Alexander of Tirragen wrinkles his nose at the sloppiness. 

 

He takes his ordeal and it's a parade of dead bodies and Duke Rogers congratulations. 

 

I will not let it happen he says inside his head. 

 

Sir Alexander of Tirragen foils a conspiracy, saves a king and looks into a royal dukes eyes as the man is executed for treason. "I am the best without you" Alex says to Roger in his head "I always have been" 

 

He becomes perhaps the best Spymaster Tortall has ever known. 

 

_ Alex of Tirragen sails easily through his ordeal without bruises, harm or sound. He has always been confident in the knowledge that he will become a knight, that he will be the best, that the world is his. What else after all, would happen - he thinks. I am the best. I will be the best  and no chamber, no friends and no man will stop me.  He smiles as he is knighted and knows all will be well with  his world. As he is given his new shield he does not look back at his former friends - friends who are second best to him.  _

 

_ I do not need them, he thinks.  _

  
  



End file.
